As we celebrate the 300th birthday of this great American, we know him as a writer, publisher, merchant, scientist, moral philosopher, and inventor. Musically he invented the glass harmonica, but he also invented the Franklin stove, and started the first lending library and fire brigade in Philadelphia.

He did experiments in electricity and developed the lightning rod.

As one of the earliest and oldest of the Founding Father, he served as lobbyist to England.

He was one of the five drafters of the American Declaration of Independence, along with John Adams and primary drafter Thomas Jefferson. Franklin was 70. At 81 he served as the oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, recommending a bi-cameral legislature.

During the Revolutionary War, he served as Minister to France and managed, with his sagacity and salon celebrity, to convince the French King Louis XVI to support the American cause financially and militarily. He dazzled the salon crowd with his notoriety and flirtation, much to John Adam’s chagrin.

He was the most famous private citizen in America and the most celebrated American in Europe.

As a moral philosopher he was a personal mystery. Though he wrote pithy and wise sayings in “Poor Richards’ Almanac” he did not live by all of them himself. He is usually considered a deist, at least in the early part of his life, but he proposed clergy-led prayer each morning during the Constitutional Convention in June of 1787. He said “God governs the affairs of men” yet he also said, “I have some doubts as to [Jesus'] divinity.”

Puritan Ezra Stiles, president of Yale, knew of Franklin’s deist leanings, but wanted, if possible, to pin down the nimble-footed freethinker to some basics. In friendship Stiles asked for some kind of creedal confession, however limited. Franklin, who said that this was the first time he had ever been asked, on March 9, 1790, readily obliged:

“Here is my creed. I believe in one God, Creator of the universe: that he governs the world by his providence. That he ought to be worshiped. That the most acceptable service we can render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life respect[ing] its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them as you do, in whatever sect I meet with them.”

In addition, Stiles wanted to know specifically what Franklin thought of Jesus: Was Franklin really a Christian or not? Franklin responded that Jesus had taught the best system of morals and religion that “the world ever saw.” But on the troublesome question of the divinity of Jesus, he had along with other deists “some doubts.” It was an issue, he said, that he had never carefully studied and, writing only five weeks before his death, he thought it “needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opport[unity] of know[ing]the truth with less trouble.” It would be difficult to burn a heretic like that.

For his own epitaph, Franklin wrote:

“The body of Benjamin Franklin, printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, stripped of its lettering, and gilding, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost; for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, revised and corrected by the Author.”

Though on his gravestone appeared only “BENJAMIN And DEBORAH FRANKLIN 1790.” His funeral in Philadelphia attracted the largest crowd of mourners ever known, an estimated 20,000 mourners.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

Perhaps no one person is more associated with the 4th of July in American History than Thomas Jefferson, probably because it was his hand that penned the immortal Declaration of Independence.

As my friend Clay Jenkinson — who has been portraying Jefferson for over 20 years — says in his book Thomas Jefferson: The Man of Light:

“The Third President is the Muse of American life, the chief articulator of our national value system and our national self-identity. Jefferson was a man of almost unbelievable achievement: statesman, man of letters, architect, scientist, book collector, political strategist, and utopian visionary. But he is also a man of paradox: liberty-loving slaveholder, Indian-loving relocationist, publicly frugal and privately bankrupt, a constitutional conservative who bought the Louisiana Territory in 1803.”

Even by 1782, as an admiring French visitor observed, Jefferson, “without having quitted his own country,” had become “an American who … is a musician, draftsman, astronomer, natural philosopher, jurist and a statesman.” He knew about crop rotation, Renaissance architecture, could dance a jig, play the fiddle, or tie an artery.

Though friends in their youth, disagreements separated Thomas Jefferson and our second President John Adams in later years. They were eventually reconciled toward their twilight years and though they never saw each other again after Adams left the White House to be replaced by Jefferson, in the last 14 years of their lives they exchanged 156 letters, some of them quite warm. This correspondence is generally regarded as the intellectual capstone to the achievements of the revolutionary generation and the most impressive correspondence between prominent statesmen.

They both died on the same day, July 4th, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, two of the last three signers. At the age of 91 John Adams collapsed in his favorite reading chair and died that afternoon, his last words are often reported to have been, “Thomas Jefferson still lives.” However, though this story appears even in contemporaneous obituaries, eulogies, and biographies — even as recently as David McCullough’s popular biography — his spinster niece and adopted daughter Louisa Smith recalls only that Adams mentioned the name Jefferson. Adams died at about 6:20.

But Jefferson might have said “Wrong, as usual,” if he had still been alive. However, in his last days his health had failed and he passed in and out of consciousness. Shortly before midnight on the 3rd of July, 1826 Jefferson asked his doctor one last time “Is it the 4th?” with his doctor replying “It soon will be.” Later around 1 pm on the 4th just a few hours before Adams died — in his home in Monticello, Virginia — surrounded by his daughter and some special slaves, at the age of 83, Thomas Jefferson died.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

Independence Day, or the Fourth of July celebrates the adoption by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, of the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the severance of the allegiance of the American colonies to Great Britain. It is the greatest secular holiday of the United States, observed in all the states, territories and dependencies.

Although it is assumed that the Continental Congress unanimously signed the document on the 4th of July, in fact not all delegates were present and there were no signers at all. Here is what really happened.

The congressional delegate from Virginia, Richard Henry Lee, introduced in the Continental Congress, on June 7, 1776, a resolution

“that…body declare the United Colonies free and independent States, absolved from allegiance to or dependence on the Crown or Parliament of Great Britain…”

On June 10 a committee of five, headed by Thomas Jefferson (the actual writer), was appointed to prepare a declaration suitable to the occasion in the event that the Virginia resolution was adopted. Jefferson’s version was revised by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams before it went to the Congress where they did some editing of their own.

Congress approved the resolution July 2; the declaration composed by Jefferson and amended by his committee was adopted July 4. That evening John Hancock ordered Philadelphia printer John Dunlap to print 200 broadside copies of the agreed upon Declaration that was signed by him as President and Charles Thomson as Secretary. These were distributed to members of the Congress and distributed to the 13 colonies and elsewhere. The Declaration was read in the yard of the state house July 8. New York did not even vote on it until July 9. The signing was even more gradual, and it is somewhat misleading to speak of the “fifty-six original signers of the Declaration of Independence”.

By August 6, most of those whose names are on the document had signed, but at least six signatures were attached later. One signer, Thomas McKean did not attach his name until 1781! Some of those who signed were not even in Congress when the Declaration was adopted, and some who voted for it in Congress never did get around to signing it. Robert R. Livingston was one of the original committee of five; he helped to frame it; he voted for it; and he never signed it.

The first anniversary of the declaration was observed only in Philadelphia, PA, by the adjournment of Congress, a ceremonial dinner, bonfires, the ringing of bells and fireworks. In 1788, after the requisite number of states had adopted the constitution, Philadelphia celebrated July 4 by elaborate festivities, including a grand procession.

Boston, Massachusetts first observed the day in 1783, and thereafter this celebration replaced that of the Boston Massacre, March 5. The custom spread to other cities and states, where the day was marked by parades, patriotic oratory, military displays and fireworks. In the present day, games and athletic contests, picnics, patriotic programs and pageants, and community fireworks of pyrotechnic expertise are characteristic of the 4th of July.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian

www.billpetro.com

The month of July was renamed for Julius Caesar, who was born in that month. Prior to that, it was called Quintilis in Latin meaning the fifth month in the ancient Roman calendar. This was before January became the first month of the calendar year about the year 450 BC. We currently use the more recent Gregorian calendar — recent as in AD 1582 — which makes use of Anno Domini, meaning “in the year of our Lord” counting from the birth of Jesus. As we’ve previously discussed, in this calendar Jesus was  born curiously 4 to 6 years BC or “Before Christ.”

The Gregorian calendar was a reform of the Julian calendar which was itself a reform of the previous Roman calendar. The Julian calendar was introduced by Julius Caesar himself in 46 BC, where he added — probably after returning from an African military campaign in late Quntilis (July) — an additional 67 days by putting two intercalary months between November and December, as Cicero tells us at the time. This took care of some of the leap year problems. The Romans, after his death, renamed Quintilis to Iulius (July) in honor of his birth month.

Though Julius Caesar is often called the first Emperor of Rome, that honor actually goes to Octavian, or Augustus Caesar to whom Julius was great uncle. Julius did, nevertheless, play an important part in Rome’s transformation from a Republic to an Empire. He rose to the position of “perpetual dictator” and his conquest of Gaul and his invasion of Britain extended the Roman world to the North Sea. His family Julia was the beginning, at the very height of Roman government, of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty that lasted until the demise of Nero in AD 68. His family claimed ancient roots from Iulus, who was the son of the Trojan price Aeneas of legend, the son of Venus, as described by the epic Latin poem The Aeneid that tells of the origin of Rome, and is named earlier in Homer’s Iliad.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

The word Solstice comes from the Latin solstitium meaning “Sun, standing-still.” This year the Summer Solstice occurs on June 21 at 05:45 UTC, or Coordinated Universal Time, or Zulu Time, or roughly Greenwich Mean Time.

This is also known as the Northern Solstice as the Sun is positioned directly above the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere. This time of year is known as Midsummer, though the official Midsummer Day is actually celebrated on June 24, thanks to differences between the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Christian festivals during this time of year are related to the Birth of St. John the Baptist. In Bolivia and Peru it’s called the Festival of San Juan.

Earth enjoys different seasons because the planet is tilted 23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit. This means that the earth revolves like a tilted spinning top. The Summer Solstice is the longest day of sunlight as the Sun is at its highest arc in the sky, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The farther north one is from the Equator, the more pronounced this is in Summer. However, as the Earth continues its orbit, the hemisphere that is angled closest to the sun changes, and the seasons are reversed.

In the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears at its highest point in the sky, and its noontime elevation appears to be the same for several days before and after the solstice, so that it looks like the Sun is “standing still” until following the Summer Solstice, the days begin to grow shorter and the nights longer.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

The celebration of Father’s Day goes back all the way to the beginning, actually to the Garden of Eden when Abel gave his father Adam a razor while his brother Cain gave his father a snake-skin tie. This was the beginning of Cain’s downward slide.

Scholars have debated for ages why Mother’s Day seems to be more honored than Father’s Day. A parallel has been drawn between this phenomenon and that of the difference in popularity between the Irish patron saint and the Italian patron saint.

The noted scholar, Father Guido Sarducci, papal legate and gossip columnist for the Vatican Enquirer has pointed out that for St. Patrick’s Day, we have lots of festivities, lots of green, celebrations and major parades. But for St. Joseph , a very good saint, there is nothing. The only thing he is known for is children’s aspirin. Dr. Les Capable of Stanford University confirmed this research by saying “Ditto”. Professor Illinois Smith, of the Department of Redundancy Department at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California said much the same thing by repeating the same thing over and over again many times in a redundant and repetitive fashion.

The holiday was first canonized by Pope Hallmark in 1582 in the Papal Bull entitled Quando Ipso Facto Volare FTD Que Sera Sera which translated means “When you care enough to send the very best.” This was confirmed years later in the United States when one of the founding matriarchs, Ma Bell ordained and established both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in an attempt to help bolster the fledgling nation’s telecommunication coffers. It is well known that Mother’s Day generally posts the highest volume of long-distance telephone calls of any single day of the year. It is not as well known that Father’s Day posts the highest volume of long-distance collect calls.

Everyone has had a father, but not everyone can be a father, especially if you are a woman. But there are few challenges in the world that are more rewarding than being a father. It is a special joy and a great honor.

It is noteworthy, as we celebrate Father’s Day, that the Bible refers to the Almighty as Father.

Happy Father’s Day!

Children’s children are the crown of old men;
and the glory of children are their fathers

Proverbs 17:6

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

The world is different than it was even a decade ago as we celebrate Memorial Day. We now are fighting a war, and we now remember why we fight. The History Channel re-runs the HBO series “Band of Brothers,” the adaptation of the Stephen Ambrose book about a company of men from the landing at Normandy through the end of the World War II.

During WWII my father crossed paths a couple of times with the Company E mentioned in “Band of Brothers.” Once at the Battle of the Bulge and later while liberating the Dachau Concentration Camp.

My father’s story was originally told in part on HBO’s website during the premier, regarding the episode entitled “Why We Fight” on the liberation of Dachau.

His full story is told in pictures at billpetro.com/johnpetro. He rarely volunteered to me information about the War, but when I did ask, he would answer. He left me pictures taken during the liberation of Dachau. Ironically, during a recent visit to Dachau, when I told the workers at this modern memorial, they all asked me the same question: “Do you have pictures?” I still have these pictures of those who survived, who looked like skeletons. I also have pictures of the skeletons of those who did not survive, of the open boxcars with bodies piled high.

Dachau gate: “Work Makes Free”

My father had seen a lot of action during the war and later was in charge of three P.O.W. camps for German prisoners, but nothing prepared him for what he saw at Dachau. He said that he watched his commanders vomit when they saw the camps. Those who were liberated were like the dead, they could not believe that they were finally being freed.

When I stood before this plaque attached to the tunnel leading up to the gate shown above, even with the school children running around playing in the yard on field day, I wept as I considered the bravery of my father’s group, Rainbow Division, one of three divisions to liberate the camp.

These gruesome images must never be forgotten. It must never be forgotten what barbarism that man is capable of committing toward fellow men. But some may say, “I don’t want to think about it, surely no one believes that these atrocities were justified, that they’d ever be repeated.” But only two decades ago, an organization asked to use University of California conference grounds property for a meeting. This request was later denied when it was learned that the organization requesting the facilities maintained that the Holocaust was a hoax, that it did not really occur. There was also a corresponding outcry that this organizations’ free speech rights were being violated.

A person who remembers the past can be grateful for the freedoms that were purchased at great cost by those who went before them. They can memorialize those who fought and died, they can honor those against whom horrors were committed. A person without this sense of history is a severed person, self-referential, cut off from the past. If you get a chance this weekend, rent Ken Burns’ excellent series The War.

On this Memorial Day, the words of George Santayana, Harvard philosopher and poet are most apt:

“Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.”

Bill Petro, son of John Petro
www.billpetro.com/johnpetro

The city of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, an American village on the National Historic Register, claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, as do some 24 other towns in America. But Boalsburg’s claim goes back to a practice at the end of the Civil War. It does have a local museum, and a history that stretches back over two centuries. Its claim is supported by pointing out, on a large sign near the center of town that:

The custom of decorating soldiers’ graves was begun here in October, 1864, by Emma Hunter, Sophie Keller, and Elizabeth Myers.

Named for David Boal who settled here in 1798. Village laid out in 1808. Boalsburg Tavern built in 1819. Post Office established 1820. First church erected 1827. Home community of three United States ambassadors.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

• Can Wolverine beat Spock two falls out of three?
• Is the USS Enterprise faster than Wolverine’s motorcycle?
• How does Sabretooth compare with a Romulan?
• Who is prettier: Silverfox or Uhura?

All these questions, and more, I do not address in these reviews. Check them out at my Culture Vulture blog.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

I can remember it like it was yesterday, though it was almost 44 years ago now. In the summer of 1966 there was a preview of a coming new Fall TV series with

…a starship the size of a city.

Then, on September 8, 1966 the first episode of Star Trek premiered on NBC. The first episode shown was “Man Trap” aka the “Salt Vampire,” but that was not the first episode recorded.

The first pilot, began on December 12, 1964 at the Desilu Studios. This pilot, “The Cage” starring Jeffrey Hunter as Captain Christopher Pike was seen 2 years later inside a later, 2-part episode in November of 1966 called “Menagerie.” The pilot also featured a dark haired female Number One played by Majel Barrett, and an excitable pointed-ear “Martian” named Mr. Spock, played by Leonard Nimoy.

The NBC executives asked for some changes and called for a second pilot. This second pilot, “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” starred William Shatner as Captain James Kirk.

Trivia: in this second pilot you see his middle initial as “R” on his tombstone. Later in the series he calls himself James T. Kirk, and only in a subsequent book is the T expanded to Tiberius, in honor of Roddenberry’s grandfather Samuel’s fascination with the Roman emperor.

The network had said to Gene Roddenberry following the first pilot, “Get rid of the woman and the guy with the pointed ears.” So he married the woman, Majel Barrett, and kept the guy with the pointed ears. Leonard Nimoy is fond of saying that he “would not have had it the other way around.” The woman dyed her hair blond and waited in Gene’s reception office so that when he walked past her even he didn’t recognize her. She became Nurse Christine Chapel. The guy with the pointed ears became less emotional, more logical, and Vulcan green rather than Martian red (which wouldn’t photograph correctly.)

The series lasted for 3 of the “5 year mission” of the United Star Ship Enterprise, a victim of poor ratings. Ironically, the following year, demographics were used and it was discovered that Star Trek was appealing to exactly the kind of audience that advertisers wanted!

The show remained incredibly popular in syndication, spawning 19 years later another TV series, “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Then there was “ST: Deep Space Nine,” later “ST: Voyager” and eventually a kind of prequel, “Enterprise.” There was even an animated Saturday morning series that ran from 1973-74 with the voices of some of the original show.

There are Trekkies, Trekkers, and Trek junkies. I belong to the later. I’ve personally seen or met all of the cast of “Star Trek Classic” (The Original Show,) and about half of the cast of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

While an undergrad at Berkeley, the “Federation Trading Post” was a local store that featured Star Trek mementos, and occasionally had the original cast stop by for a visit. There I caught Nichelle Nichols (lovely), William Shatner (virtually undetectable toupee), and George Takei. George is the friendliest and most outgoing of the cast. He had done his lower division studies in architecture there at Cal, then transferred to UCLA to finish in theater. He is happy to discuss almost any subject. I met James Doohan after I was practicing for a fencing show on campus. As I walked out of the theater and saw him sitting on the lawn, I said to my fencing partner “That’s Jimmy Doohan!” “Who is that?” he asked. “Scotty, from Star Trek!” I replied. James was there to do a play on campus and I sat down on the lawn with him and discussed “theater” for over an hour. I was dying to talk about Star Trek, but I didn’t want to seem like a sniveling fan. He admitted that he loved theater, but TV paid the bills.

I chatted with Majel Barrett Rodenberry (stunningly attractive), Wil Wheaton (bright and techie — one of the early bloggers), Marina Sirtis (striking, and with a British accent you don’t hear on the show) and Walter Koenig at various technology shows or Star Trek conventions. And no, I don’t wear “ears.”

Now don’t let anyone tell you it’s a cult, that is not true at all. It’s more like a religion.

This religion requires that I always be there the first day of the movie premiers. On December 7, 1979, a day that will live in infamy, the first full length movie opened, “Star Trek: The Motionless Picture.” Despite a plodding plot, the movie did amazing well, and led to several more films. The second, “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn” was considered the best by the faithful, featuring a return engagement of a popular opponent from Kirk’s past. When it was leaked that Spock would die, a futile boycott was called. A hasty tag-on was filmed and put on the end of the movie.

By the way, here’s the question that I stumped the Trivia Expert panel with at a Trek Convention years ago in San Francisco. See if you know the answer:

In Star Trek:II, Spock was “buried” in a photon torpedo tube shot into space to land on the Genesis Planet. What was written on that tube?

This movie was followed by the Leonard Nimoy directed “ST III: the Search for Spock,” which was followed by “ST IV: Still Looking for Spock.” Just kidding. “ST IV: The Search For Whales,” I mean “The Voyage Home” was considered the most generally popular and successful of the movies, with plenty of humor and a modern-day San Francisco as a back drop.

Now that Leonard Nimoy had directed his second film, William Shatner wanted a turn. “ST V: What Were They Thinking” came out, as his first and last excursion. The camp-out with the backdrop of Yosemite couldn’t pull this one out of the fire.

“ST VI: Quoting Lines From Hamlet” was the last of the Classic-era movies, and featured Kirk’s last heard line as Captain of the Enterprise, a line I’ve been waiting for him to say for years… It’s a line quoted by another fly-boy hero of mine:

Second star to the right and straight on till morning.

This was followed by “Star Trek Generations,” a mixture of the old Classic-era generation and an extended Next Generation episode. Here we see the changing of the guard as Scotty, Checkov, and Kirk inaugurate the Enterprise NCC 1701-B.

Subsequent movies featured the cast of the Pepsi-Generation series: “First Contact” where we go back in time and meet the inventor of warp drive (faster than light speed travel.) “Insurrection” followed with the Next Generation cast again, directed by ST:TNG First Officer Commander Will Riker, aka Jonathan Frakes, as he had directed “First Contact” and episodes of “ST:TNG,” “Deep Space Nine” and “Voyager.”

“Star Trek X: Nemesis” was release in 2002 — and should have been subtitled “Send in the Clones” — but it was not enough to push the franchise further for several years. In general, the even numbered movies were better than the odd numbered ones.

Indeed, the last TV series, “Enterprise” had a relatively short life, only 4 years, compared with earlier The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, or Voyager.

In a few days on May 8, 2009 we’ll see J.J. Abrams‘ vision of a Star Trek reboot with the debut of the 11th Star Trek feature film and hope rings eternal for Trek junkies like me. Until then, review the various Star Trek logos throughout history below. And watch for my movie review Friday at: culturevulture.billpetro.com

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood Trek junkie
www.billpetro.com